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Zarqawi was alive when
Iraqi police got to him
USA, EU set deadline for Iran
US aid to Pak cut by $350 m
Aung San Suu Kyi sick
New work of Da Vinci found
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Zarqawi was alive when
Iraqi police got to him
Washington, June 10 In fact, he explained, a mortally wounded Zarqawi was the only one of the six persons in the house to initially survive the blasts of the two 500lb bombs dropped on the house, a two-storey white structure in a date grove near the town of Baquba. Police found Zarqawi alive and placed him on a stretcher. At a certain point, when he "attempted to sort of turn away off the stretcher, everybody resecured him back on... He died shortly thereafter from the wounds he received." Maj-Gen Caldwell added that "he mumbled something - whatever it was, it was very short." It is also not entirely clear why Zarqawi's face, as it appeared afterwards, seemed comparatively intact. "We cleaned the blood off," Maj-Gen Caldwell said, explaining how the released photos showed little more than a few cuts, although the house itself, judging from other photos, was totally flattened. Whatever the discrepancies over Zarqawi's last moments, his death - coupled with the completion at last of a new government in Baghdad - has provided the Bush administration a fleeting opportunity to show it has a strategy for prevailing in a war which a clear majority of Americans now believe was a mistake. The successful raid has not only deflected attention from the investigations into alleged atrocities against Iraqi civilians by US Marines. It has also proved that US and its allies now have the ability to penetrate al-Qa'ida in Iraq. US special forces have been tracking Zarqawi ever since the 2003 invasion and have had several near misses, most recently in April during raids on the southern Iraqi city of Yusufiyah. Meanwhile, attention here is already turning to who will take over from Zarqawi as al-Qaida's de facto commander on the ground in Iraq. Maj-Gen Caldwell said the most likely figure was the Egyptian-born Abu Ayyub al-Masri. In February 2005 he was named by the US military as a close associate of Zarqawi, and a $50,000 (pounds sterling)27,000) bounty was placed on his head. Masri's links with the al-Qa'ida supreme commanders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are unclear. Yesterday, al-Jazeera broadcast a video of the latter praising Zarqawi. But it appears to have been made before the latter's death. — By arrangement with The Independent, London
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New York, June 10 The US and Europe have set a deadline of June 29, when Foreign Ministers from the Group of Eight industrialised nations are scheduled to meet in Moscow, the New York Times reported today quoting European diplomats and senior Bush administration officials. However, it said the deadline was not explicitly part of the package given to Iran earlier this week, but Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, conveyed it to Iranian officials in Tehran on Tuesday when he delivered the proposal. The deadline, the Times said, reflects concern among the US, Britain and France that Iran continues to enrich uranium and develop its nuclear capability even as its leadership considers the package of incentives. "We know that time is not on our side," one European diplomat was quoted as saying. On July 15, US President George W Bush and the leaders of Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Italy are together in St. Petersburg for the Group of Eight summit meeting, where Iran is expected to be high on the agenda. "If we haven't heard anything from them" by June 29, "that would be a very bad sign and we'd start looking at the sticks," a European diplomat was quoted as saying.
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US aid to Pak cut by $350 m
Washington, June 10 The House of Representatives in the Foreign Appropriations Bill for Fiscal 2007 reduced economic support funds for Pakistan from the current year by $ 250 million to $ 300 million for the next year. Foreign military financing funds for the next year have been dropped to $ 200 million, a decrease of $ 100 million from the current fiscal year. “From the full pardon that President Musharraf granted to Abdul Qadeer Khan, who admitted to spreading nuclear weapons technology to Iran and North Korea, to frequent reports of human rights abuses, Pakistan cannot expect full support from the USA without providing answers to some serious questions,” Democratic Congressman Joseph Crowley said in a statement. Mr Crowley, who is a senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, welcomed the action, saying that “by reducing this aid to Pakistan we are sending a message that democracy must eventually be restored and that human rights must be upheld.
— PTI
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Paan (Myanmar), June 10Myanmar's police chief said today that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi had been ill and treated at home, but denied reports the democracy icon had been hospitalized. "She is at her house now. She was suffering from diarrhoea" and had received treatment from her doctor, Major-General Khin Yi told reporters while travelling in eastern Karen state." These rumours are all false," he said of reports that she had been hospitalised. Khin Yi said Aung San Suu Kyi's personal doctor had visited her on Thursday, but he would not say whether the Nobel peace laureate had at some point been taken to a hospital or clinic for treatment. Earlier Lwin, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy party, also denied the reports. He said he could not explain the reports, which originated from US-based exile groups. However, an Associated Press (AP) copy today quoted an NLDP spokesman as saying that Suu Kyi had returned home after receiving treatment at a hospital for stomach ailment. Party spokesman Nyan Win said that Suu Kyi was taken to hospital yesterday with a severe stomach problem but was returned home — where she is under house arrest — after her condition improved. Anti-government activists in the United States, citing contacts from inside Myanmar, had said yesterday that Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel peace laureate, had been hospitalised with severe diarrhoea. Thaung Htun, the New York-based UN representative for a
self-styled Myanmar government in exile, said Suu Kyi, 60,was taken to the hospital sometime after 3 pm local time on Thursday after she called her physician because of diarrhoea
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New work of Da Vinci found
Rome, June 10 The drawing will be unveiled in the Doges’ Palace in Venice on June 15. The sketch of a head with deformed, monstrous features was sold to industrialist Giancarlo Ligabue as being “in the manner” of Da Vinci. “I bought it from an antiques dealer in Venice, who made it very clear I should not delude myself into thinking it was really a drawing by Leonardo”, he told Corriere della Sera newspaper. “A year ago, I published a catalogue of drawings from my collection, and to do this, I asked for help from experts. “For the “Leonardo”-style drawings, I consulted professor Luisa Cogliati Arano, who is an authority on arts works. On this drawing, she said she was puzzled and advised me to have it examined scientifically”.
— AFP
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Paan (Myanmar),
June 10
